1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image correction technology, and more specifically to an image correction apparatus and an image correcting method for correcting based on the preference of a user an image obtained by, for example, a digital camera, a color printer, etc. into a preferred image for the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
With an improvement in the performance of a computer, image-related appliances such a color printer, etc. have been widely used. Additionally, using a digital camera, a common user has a larger number of opportunities. However, the quality of a color image captured by a digital camera, etc. is not always satisfactory for a user. For example, images may be too dark, not bright, not clear, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to easily improve the quality of an image, for example, captured by a digital camera into a nice and satisfactory image for a user.
Thus, to correct an image into an image preferred by a user, it is necessary to assume that every user has his or her own preference of an image, and all users do not prefer the same image. For example, a user prefer a brighter image, but another user prefer a darker image. Therefore, in the image correction technology, the preference of each user is to be taken into account such that a satisfactory corrected image can be obtained for users.
The conventional technology of correcting an image with the preference of each user taken into account can be the software (Color Genius) provided by Dai-Nippon Screen Ltd. The catalog of a product describes the realization of the following three functions.
The first function is to automatically improve the quality of an image by software based on some keywords. The second function is to stores the difference between an image obtained by the automatic improvement and an corrected image obtained as a result of the correction made by a user. The third function is to make the difference between an automatically corrected image and the user corrected image be reflected in the automatic improvement in other images.
That is, in the conventional technology, the difference between the first preferred image obtained based on the preference of a user and the second preferred image obtained by automatically correcting an original image by software is stored, and the preference of a user is taken into account.
FIG. 1 shows the process of obtaining the preference of a user in the conventional technology. As shown in FIG. 1, when the process starts, a user sets an image to be corrected as an original image first in step S101, an corrected image is automatically generated from the original image in step S102, thereby obtaining an automatically corrected image. At this time, if the user difference information described later exists, then an corrected image is automatically generated with the information taken into account.
Then, in step S103, the user corrects the original image, thereby obtaining a user corrected image. Finally, in step S104, the difference between two images obtained in the steps S102 and S103, that is, the difference between the automatically corrected image and the user corrected image is stored in the system, and is reflected as user difference information in the automatic correction to an image other than the original image.
However, the above mentioned conventional technology has the following two problems.
The first problem refers to an intensive operation to be performed by a user. As described in step S103 shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary to generate an image preferred for a user as an corrected image corresponding to an original image. The correcting operation normally requires an intensive adjustment, thereby forcing a person poor in the knowledge of images to perform not only an intensive, but also a very hard operation.
The second problem is that, when an automatically corrected image obtained in step S102 shown in FIG. 1 is an appropriate image, a serious influence arises. That is, if a preferred image automatically generated by software is different from the preference of a common user, the difference between the wrong image, for example, an image too dark for the user, and a user corrected image is stored.
For example, if the user generates an corrected image at a brightness level of the preference of a common user, the difference obtained as a result of the adjustment made by the user for a brighter image is stored, thereby badly affecting the subsequent image corrections such that an image at a standard brightness level is corrected for a furthermore brighter image.